[BrendanD]

Not everyone lives in a temperate climate with little precipitation, nor in modern cities with wide streets laid out on a regular grid. I seriously doubt self-driving cars are ready for some of the weather conditions where I live. Freezing rain. Snow storms. Roads increasingly narrowing in winter from huge snowbanks. They might be ready for your use case, but they ain't ready for mine.

[bryanlarsen]

Every sane self-driving company is looking to launch as a taxi service for this reason. That way they don't have to operate where they don't do well, and then they can steadily expand their region.

Also, I believe that weather is a simpler problem than unpredictable behaviour from other cars, pedestrians, cyclists, delivery vehicles, emergency vehicles, construction, et cetera which occurs everywhere. Of course, it could turn out that both are insurmountable.